Swedish television crew detained, deported

New York, April 18,
2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed
dismay today over Azerbaijan's deportation of a Swedish television crew that
had arrived in Baku to film a documentary on human rights and freedom of speech.
CPJ urged Azerbaijani authorities to stop obstructing the international press.

According to CPJ sources and local press reports,
plainclothed men detained journalists My Rohwedder
Street, Charlie Laprevote, and Charlotta Wijkström at a protest rally in the
capital city Baku
on Sunday. The men, who did not identify themselves, detained the crew members and
took them to the Sabail District police department in Baku,
then transferred them to the headquarters of Azerbaijan's Migration Service, the
local press reported. The men also confiscated their digital cameras and erased
all existing footage from their memory cards, international
press reported.

The crew members were reportedly told that they were missing
press accreditation documents that they allegedly needed to work in Azerbaijan,
according to CPJ sources. The journalists, however, had received valid
journalist visas from the Azerbaijani Embassy in Stockholm,
Rohwedder
Street told the independent Caucasus news website Kavkazsky Uzel.
Rohwedder
Street said that she and her colleagues
officially informed the Azerbaijani authorities of the purpose of their visit
when they applied for the visas.

Around 6 p.m. Baku time today,
all three reporters were deported from Azerbaijan
to Turkey,
Mehman Aliyev, director of the Baku-based independent news agency Turan, told
CPJ. According to the Azeri Press
Agency, a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said today that
the ministry had investigated the incident with the Swedish crew and concluded
that the journalists had to be deported because they did not have press
accreditation.

"We deplore the illegal detention and deportation of our
colleagues My Rohwedder Street, Charlie Laprevote, and Charlotta
Wijkström and call on Azerbaijani authorities to allow them to report in the
country without fear of harassment and obstruction," Nina Ognianova, CPJ Europe
and Central Asia program coordinator, said. "It is of utmost concern that the
international television crew was singled out for retaliation despite their
valid documentation."

Rohwedder Street, Laprevote, and Wijkström arrived in Azerbaijan on Friday
to produce a documentary on human rights and freedom of speech for the Swedish
public broadcaster Sveriges Television. On Sunday, they arrived at Saahil Squarein Baku, where the opposition was
preparing for an anti-government rally. The crew was setting up to report on
the protest, local press said. Staffers from the Baku-based
Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), who were at the scene, told
CPJ that plainclothed men singled out the Swedish crew even though other members
of the press were present. The crew members were detained before the protest started.